40 Strange rare, unfamiliar/special, powerful
40 ling’ring poisons poisons that cause a slow, painful death
44 prove test, try
45 higher in the chain of being, i.e. on people
46 show appearance, illusion
47 locking-up … time temporary disappearance of the signs of life
48 reviving upon reviving
55 quench cool down, settle down
55 instructions good advice
56 Do thou work i.e. on persuading Innogen to forget Posthumus and marry Cloten
60 fortunes … gasp i.e. Posthumus’ state and reputation are like a deathbed patient about to die
62 shift his being change his dwelling place
64 every … him i.e. every day is wasted since he has no future
66 depender dependent
66 leans is unstable
73 What … cordial anything more restorative
74 earnest installment, foretaste
76 as from thyself i.e. as if it were your own opinion on the matter
77 Think … on think how your fortunes will improve by switching sides
78 Thou … still you won’t lose Innogen
78 to boot also, as well/to (your) advantage
79 take … thee acknowledge your service and make sure you are preferred
79 I’ll … desire I’ll persuade the king to confer on you any kind of rank, social advancement you wish
82 set … desert persuaded you to go for this reward
83 load reward
84 constant loyal, devoted, firm
85 shaked shaken (in his loyalty)
86 remembrancer officer responsible for the collection of debts/reminder
87 handfast marriage contract
88 unpeople … sweet i.e. it will kill Pisanio if he takes it; sweet sweetheart
89 liegers ambassadors, servants
90 Except … humour unless she changes her attitude
93 closet private room
Act 1 Scene 6
1 stepdame stepmother
3 husband banished i.e. whose husband is banished
5 thief-stol’n stolen by a thief
7 glorious lofty, ambitious
8 mean lowly, humble, poor
8 wills wishes, plays on sense of “sexual desires”
9 seasons adds spice to/matures with time/seasons of the year
9 Fie! exclamation of reproach
12 Change you i.e. your color, but the phrase plays upon an ambiguous sense—“have your affections changed?”
17 out of door external/visible
18 furnished equipped, endowed
18 rare exceptional
19 th’Arabian bird the phoenix, a mythical bird, of which, according to legend, only one could exist at any time, therefore a symbol of true uniqueness
21 boldness arm me with audacity
21 Arm me audacity may audacity arm me/may
22 Parthian … fight fight as I retreat like the Parthians: ancient inhabitants of what is now Iraq known for their battle tactic of retreating on horseback while firing arrows at their pursuing enemies
23 Rather, directly fly or retreat outright
24 note reputation, distinction
25 Reflect bestow attention
26 as … trust to the same degree as you value the quality of trust in yourself/as you value your trust in me/as you value your duty as a wife
27 So far thus much
35 vaulted arch i.e. the sky
36 which i.e. men’s eyes
37 fiery orbs stars/planets
37 twinned identical
38 th’unnumbered the uncountable
39 Partition distinction
39 spectacles so precious miraculous organs of sight/such wondrous sights, i.e. Innogen
41 makes your admiration causes your amazement, wonder
43 shes women
43 chatter this way signal approval by their chattering
44 Contemn scorn, slight
44 mows grimaces
45 idiots … definite even an idiot presiding over this case of beauty (favour) would be resolute as would a wise judge
46 appetite sexual desire
47 Sluttery sluttishness
47 neat elegant
48 vomit emptiness i.e. retch
49 allured offered, tempted
49 feed plays on sense of “have sex with her”
50 trow in truth
51 cloyèd sated, surfeited
51 will sexual desire; plays on sense of “genitals,” usually “penis”
53 running emptying, running over
53 ravening ravenously devouring
54 garbage offal, intestines
56 raps possesses, transports
58 Desire … abode ask my manservant to remain
59 strange a stranger
59 peevish temperamental, irritable
66 gamesome lively, sportive/lusty, i.e. with sexual implication
72 one an one (who is) an
74 Gallian French
74 furnaces … sighs sighing frequently like a furnace
76 from’s free lungs openly, without restraint; free has connotations of licentiousness
78 proof experience
88 but … thankfully although he could be more appreciative of the gifts heaven has bestowed upon him, especially of Innogen
89 ’tis i.e. heaven’s bounty is
90 account reckon
90 talents personal qualities/monetary account
99 hide me hide myself
100 snuff candle end
105 enjoy take pleasure in, with sexual innuendo
106 office duty
106 venge avenge
110 doubting … ill suspecting things are going badly
112 timely knowing learning in time
113 born found
113 discover … stop reveal to me what makes your speech start and stop (the image is from horse riding)
115 Had I if I had
117 feeler’s i.e. the person who felt the touch (of Innogen’s hand)
118 this object Innogen herself/her eye
119 Takes … motion transfixes the restless gaze
120 Firing setting it aflame (with desire)
121 Slaver flatter/wet with saliva
121 common … Capitol i.e. used by everyone
122 Capitol the national temple of Rome dedicated to Jupiter
123 falsehood … labour i.e. just as manual labor hardens the hands, habitual falsehood hardens the heart
124 by-peeping glancing sideways
125 illustrous lackluster, dull
126 fed with produced by
126 tallow animal fat, used to make candles
126 fit right, appropriate
128 Encounter such revolt punish such a transgression
131 Not … pronounce it gives me no pleasure to reveal this news
139 empery empire
140 Would … double which would double the power of even the greatest king
140 partnered equated, considered alongside
141 tomboys prostitutes
141 self-exhibition same allowance of money
142 ventures hazards/prostitutes
143 play gamble
143 infirmities diseases
144 boiled stuff women who have been made to sweat in steam rooms: a treatment for venereal disease
147 Recoil … stock degenerate from your royal lineage
154 Diana’s priest Diana was the goddess of chastity, whose female priests were virgins
154 cold chaste, sexless
155 vaulting to mount sexually
155 variable ramps various prostitutes
155 ramp a bold, vulgar woman
156 In your despite in contempt, scorn of you
156 upon your purse at your expense
158 runaga
te runaway, vagabond
159 fast constant, firm
162 Let … lips allow me to kiss you
164 attended listened, paid attention to
164 thee less polite than you as a term of address, used to inferiors but also to intimates
173 saucy impudent, insolent
173 mart do business; literally “marketplace”
174 Romish stew Roman brothel
175 us the royal plural pronoun
179 credit trust, belief, good reputation, plays on economic sense
185 affiance trothplight, marriage promise
187 new o’er all over again
188 truest mannered most honestly given, most faithful
188 holy witch i.e. good wizard who uses holy magic
196 try your taking test how you would take
198 In … rare in choosing such an exceptional husband
200 fan winnow; blow air through grain to separate the wheat from the chaff or husks
201 chaffless without chaff or refuse
204 but only
205 moment importance, significance
210 best … wing best among our group of friends
210 mingled sums all contributed money
212 factor agent
213 plate gold or silver utensils/tableware
213 rare device exceptional craftwork, carving
215 something curious somewhat anxious
215 strange a stranger, foreigner
219 pawn lay down
220 interest a stake, a share
227 short fall short of, not live up to
228 Gallia France
236 outstood outstayed
236 material crucial
237 tender giving
Act 2 Scene 1
1 kissed the jack bowling term, i.e. Cloten’s bowl touched the small target ball
2 upon an upcast meaning uncertain: by accident/tossing a throw up/on the last shot (as in upshot)
3 jackanapes upstart/impertinent fellow
3 take me up rebuke me
4 oaths swearwords
4 of from
5 spend … pleasure utter them when I please
6 pate head
8 If … out i.e. Cloten’s brain is thin, poor stuff
10 gentleman i.e. a nobleman
11 curtail cut short
15 rank status, plays on secondary sense of “smell”
17 a pox on’t expression of anger
17 pox any disease characterized by pustules/venereal disease
18 so as
19 jack-slave lowborn person
21 cock cockerel, plays on sense of “penis”
22 capon castrated cockerel/idiot
23 comb i.e. like a fool; cock and comb together make “cockscomb,” a jester’s cap/fool
24 Sayest thou? What did you say?
25 undertake take on, fight
26 companion fellow
27 commit offence take on in fight/be offensive to
29 fit … only i.e. only you would show such ill breeding (although on the surface the First Lord means “it is your right alone”)
39 whatsoever whoever
42 derogation disgrace, loss of dignity
43 You cannot derogate i.e. because you have no dignity to lose in the first place
45 issues deeds, puns on “children”
52 Bears all down crushes everything that stands in her way
53 for his heart for the life of him
56 Betwixt between
57 mother i.e. stepmother
57 coining devising, creating
58 expulsion banishment
60 he’d make i.e. which he would make happen, in order to marry her himself
Act 2 Scene 2
5 weak tired
6 leaf page
6 left left off
7 taper candle
11 fairies believed to be malign in folklore
11 tempters … night presumably evil spirits, perhaps incubi, male demons believed to have sex with sleeping women
13 crickets sing indicates that it is night and very quiet
13 o’er-laboured sense overworked capacity for feeling
14 Our Tarquin Sextus Tarquinius raped Lucrece after which the Tarquins were driven from Rome and the republic was born (events narrated by Shakespeare in The Rape of Lucrece); Iachimo’s use of our, i.e. a fellow Roman suggests a more sinister affinity
15 rushes reeds strewn on the floor as a covering
15 ere before
16 Cytherea Venus, goddess of love
17 bravely thou becom’st how finely, admirably you adorn your bed
17 lily an emblem of purity and chastity
19 Rubies i.e. Innogen’s red lips
19 unparagoned unequaled, matchless
20 dearly exquisitely
20 do’t i.e. kiss; possibly confirms that he does kiss her on the previous line
22 underpeep her lids peep under her eyelids
23 lights i.e. her eyes
23 canopied covered
24 windows shutters, i.e. her eyelids
24 azure bright blue
24 laced ornamented
25 tinct color
25 But my design but back to my purpose
28 Th’adornment the decoration
28 arras tapestry wall hanging
28 figures either sewn into the tapestry or carved into the mantelpiece
29 contents subject matter
30 notes distinctive marks
30 about upon
31 Above more than
31 meaner less important/convincing as evidence
31 movables items of furniture, property
32 testify … inventory give credibility to my list of evidence
33 ape mimic
33 dull heavy
34 sense senses
34 monument carved statue of a figure lying on a tomb
36 Gordian knot which was tied by the Phrygian king Gordius and was so
36 hard that no one could untie it; a prophecy said that whoever did so would conquer Asia, which Alexander the Great fulfilled by cutting through the knot with his sword
37 witness outwardly serve as proof
39 th’madding the maddening
40 cinque-spotted having five spots
40 drops spots
41 cowslip wild spring flower, yellow in color (which does indeed have five spots inside)
41 voucher piece of evidence; in legal terms offering a warranty of title
42 secret intimate fact, detail
43 picked i.e. a delicate and skillful operation, implying he seduced her into giving up her honor to him as opposed to taking it by force
47 Tereus another famous rapist: King of Thrace, he ravished Philomel, his sister-in-law, and cut out her tongue to stop her revealing the crime
48 gave up was forced to yield/succumbed, surrendered
49 spring lock, catch
50 dragons … night night was imagined as a chariot drawn by dragons
50 dawning … eye ravens, considered birds of ill omen, were believed to wake at dawn
52 this i.e. Innogen
Act 2 Scene 3
2 most coldest least passionate
2 ace the lowest score in dice
3 cold gloomy, dispirited
4 after according to, following the example of
4 temper temperament
11 penetrate i.e. move her emotionally, plays on sexual sense
12 fingering i.e. your playing, with obvious secondary image of penetrating the vagina with fingers
13 so so much the better
13 with tongue i.e. with voices, with the secondary image of “cunnilingus”
13 remain stay as she is
14 good-conceited thing well devised, fanciful piece
15 air solo song
18 Phoebus Apollo, the sun god
18 ’gins begins to
19 springs … lies water from the dew
that collects in flowers
20 chaliced cuplike
21 winking sleeping
21 Mary-buds marigold buds
26 horsehairs used for the bows of stringed instruments
26 calves’ guts used for the strings
26 unpaved without stones (testicles), i.e. castrated
27 to boot into the bargain
31 fatherly as a father, i.e. approve of me as a husband for Innogen
33 Attend you here are you waiting here (at)
35 vouchsafes grants, confers
37 minion favorite
39 wear bear/wear out
41 bound indebted
42 vantages advantageous opportunities
43 Prefer recommend
43 frame … solicits adjust your conduct to well-mannered solicitations
44 be … season i.e. behaving as the situation demands will work to your advantage
45 denials (Innogen’s) rejections
49 dismission dismissal
50 senseless insensible, i.e. deaf, which Cloten shifts in next line to meaning “stupid”
52 So like you if you please
55 Albeit although
56 receive welcome
57 his sender Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor
58 forspent exhausted
59 notice attention
66 line i.e. with money
68 Diana’s rangers attendants on Diana, goddess of chastity and hunting
68 false betray
69 th’stand o’th’stealer the poacher’s hidden shooting position
70 true honest
73 lawyer to me i.e. plead on my behalf
74 I yet not I still don’t
74 understand the case comprehend the situation; plays on sexual meanings of stand, “erection,” and case, “vagina”
80 That’s … of i.e. expensive clothes are all that distinguish his noble birth
85 keep remain in, stay inside
87 Sell … report i.e. let me bribe you to speak well of me to Innogen
90 sister stepsister
90 your (give me) your
91 lay out expend
92 but only
96 deep moving, effective
97 still forever
100 But … silent i.e. to prevent you taking my silence as consent
102 unfold display, offer
103 knowing knowledge
112 put me cause me
113 verbal talkative
114 which who
118 boast overt exclamation
121 pretend claim
121 base wretch i.e. Posthumus
122 bred of alms brought up on (Cymbeline’s) charity
124 meaner parties persons of lower social rank
127 self-figured knot bond made by themselves
128 curbed … enlargement restrained from that freedom of choice
129 consequence o’th’crown importance of the crown (and the fact that you are its heir)